Monday, April 02, 2007

Under April Skies

I didn't know which news stories to believe yesterday and certainly wasn't bowled over by the sheer hilarity of the April Fool's jokes. BMW did an advert about a new gadget - this has never been funny, but they persist with it nevertheless. The Observer had a piece about Tony Blair going into acting when he leaves Downing Street, here's the link.

We watched Louis Theroux's programme about a preacher in Kansas called Fred Phelps from Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka and his family have become The Most Hated Family in America. They picket funerals of servicemen and women to proclaim it is a good thing. They wave offensive banners about homosexuality. Their website is God Hates Fags, and no, I won't be providing a link to it. This just had to be an April Fool. Surely? But no, here's what Wikipedia has to say about Phelps, here. We've been discussing it at work and we haven't made up our mind. If it is a spoof, it's a good one.

3 comments:

NIGEL HUGHES said...

The best April Fool's gag I ever read in a newspaper came from the humble Wirral News. One April 1st, the lead story was that, at long last, the River Mersey was going to be cleaned up. All they needed was somewhere to put the water while the clean-up took place and residents of Birkenhead North were being asked to vacate their homes for the weekend so that the Mersey could be stored there while the river bed got a spring clean.

That loads of people fell for it is even funnier than the story itself!

EAR I AM

Lee said...

Here's an April Fool related story also...

Many years ago Renault UK sent an April Fool press release about their new added extra to a Megane (or some equally crap car), apparently it was a voice activated car and would drive itself.

It was submitted to the Lancashire Evening Telegraph (amongst others no doubt), the only problem was that the LET ran the story a fortnight later!

(I too watched the story about the preacher family, it never crossed my mind that it might be an April Fool, this is America after all).

Lee said...

Here's another April Fools gag...

Many years ago Renault UK sent out a release to be published on 01/04 about their new voice activated Renault Megane

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph published it a fortnight later!


(I too saw the programme about the American preacher family. The thought that it might be an April Fool never crossed my mind, this is the USA after all)